100 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermace8&. 



-Substituted for Botryopsis: in the latter paragraph, as an illus- 

 tration of the genus Chondodendron, there is a reference to the 

 Cocculus cotoneaster, DC. (Syst. i. 525), in Delessert^s ' Icones/ 

 i. tab. 93j which shows how little the Menispermacea have been 

 understood even by the most eminent botanists. There is 

 nothing in the habit of that plant, in the venation or form 

 of its leaves, or in its inflorescence that approaches the genus : 

 it is the drawing of a well-known Syngenesious plant from 

 Chile, the Proustia oblonffifolia, Don, with a panicle in an 

 undeveloped state, as may readily be seen by comparing it with 

 the dried plant, with which it agrees in all respects, even show- 

 ing its spinuliform stipules. 



All the species of Chondodendron are climbing plants, natives 

 of Peru, Guiana, and Brazil. The leaves are usually subcoria- 

 ceous, glabrous above, somewhat tomeotose beneath, often with 

 lengthened petioles inserted upon, or a little within, the margin 

 of the blade ; the inflorescence assumes the form of long, lax, 

 Tacemose panicles ; the male flower consists of from twelve to 

 eighteen sepals, externally smaller, the outermost minute and 

 bracteiform, all imbricately placed in ternary series upon a 

 somewhat cylindrical torus; six petals in two series, shorter 

 than the larger sepals, but sometimes reduced in size and scale- 

 like, affixed to the androecium ; stamens six, in two series, the 

 inner ones connivently erect, free to the base, but compacted 

 upon the summit of the gynsecium, the outer ones slightly 

 curved, all surmounted by 2-celled anthers, the cells being sepa- 

 rated by a fleshy connective which is introrsely excurrent, the 

 long apical obtuse points all inclining towards the centre. 

 The female flowers have a similar number of sepals and petals, 

 but no stamens, or only rudimentary ones ; generally six ovaries 

 are somewhat stipitately affixed on a central gynsecium ; six or 

 fewer drupes radiately attached, each firmly affixed by its long 

 support upon a large clavate receptacle, which terminates the 

 pedicel; the putamen is ovoid, subcom pressed, coriaceous, bi- 

 marsupiaily divided by a septiform condyle, like that in Hyper-^ 

 bcena, which extends from the base beyond the centre, as in 

 Tiliacora : the seed, which fills the cell, is thus deeply hippo- 

 crepical, exalbuminous, with two large, fleshy, accumbently 

 curved cotyledons, and a very small radicle pointing to the style, 

 which, owing to the excentric growth, is brought down close to 

 the base of the fruit. 



Chondodendron, R. & P. Botryopsis olim, nob, — Flores 

 dioici. Masc. Sepala 12-18, or dine ternario imbricatim dis- 

 posita, ad torum subcylindricum seriebus alternis crebriter 

 affixa, gradatim minora, exteriora minima, bracteiforraia, 



